The Most Effective Teaching Styles to Deliver Course Materials |

Intro

If you're experienced in a topic, have experience with a specific field or would like to demonstrate to people how you got to where you are today by sharing specific strategies and techniques and strategies, you may have thought about giving a class. Teaching can be done in a variety of ways, including an online program (yes it's still happening -- in fact, online learning is projected to be 1 trillion by 2030) as well as a virtual activity (teaching students to perform tarot card readings) and even an online mastermind group (like-minded members gather together to share their knowledge).

Whichever format you decide to use, you've probably also wondered, "What's the best teaching approach?" Because let's face that, like there's not one way to learn, there's no any one method of teaching. If you've taught for a long time or are a total newbie, learning the different methods of teaching will not just help your students succeed however, it can help you deliver the best content possible.

Here's what we'll cover in this article:

• Why teaching styles are important.        
  
• The various styles of instruction.        
  
• What the best teaching style is.        
  

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What are the teaching methods important?

There's no one-size-fits-all in the world of learning. Fortunately it is possible to find different teaching styles to match. Certain people learn better visually (around 65percent of the population learn best visually) Others learn through studying, listening, writing, or by engaging in (using every sense).

There are various ways of teaching. Teaching styles can shape the learning experiences of students and greatly impact their understanding of the material.

Learning styles matter since you'll be able to discover your distinctive voice and style as a trainer and you can reach different kinds of students.

Which are various teaching styles?

The various kinds of styles for teaching are on a spectrum, from a teacher-centered approach to a more student-focused approach. For the former approach, the teacher is the authority figure who teaches their material according to plan and expect students to simply take in the content.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have the concept of a student-centered learning approach. This approach is all about making connections with students using community-based learning to meet students at their level, and tailoring the class to meet their needs.

There are many approaches to thinking about teaching style, the classic method has been The Spectrum of Teaching Styles that was developed by Muska Mosston in 1966. However, others have adapted this concept and now it is common to refer to five teaching styles: lecturer, demonstrator, blended, facilitator, and delegator.

Then we'll look at the teaching styles from more teacher-centered to more student-centered.

Lecturer

This instructional style is great to -- guess the answer -- lecturing to a large group or students.

The teacher plays a central role and is a single-channel communication method. It's also structured and organized as the material has been carefully planned. Instruction can be delivered in asynchronous fashion (students learn live while the teacher teaches) or asynchronously (students learning independently, as using a recorded course).

Because there are so many present, there's simply not enough space or time when the teacher gives a talk for more individualized interaction with students. However, that doesn't mean they can't have questions after the conclusion of the presentation or lecture.

This kind of style of instruction is ideal to large classes of students, whether it's the instructor's virtual course, a live webinar, or a pre-recorded course.

Pros of the lecturer teaching style

• Effectiveness: Teachers are able to efficiently teach a large amount of subjects with a huge amount of students simultaneously.      
  
• Scalability Scalability: The information provided is identical each time, which makes it easy to prepare the material and consistently deliver it whether it's to 100 or 1000 students.      
  
• Structure: This kind of instruction typically is structured that makes it easy for students to follow along as they already have a sense of what to expect.      
  
• accessibility: Materials such as slides or notes are available to students for review afterwards.      
  

The negatives of the lecturer's method of teaching

• Active learning: This method of teaching tends to encourage passive learning, where students are receivers of information rather than actively participating of the process of learning.      
  
• Inability to engage: Students may become disengaged or bored in long lecture sessions and not retain all of the information presented.      
  
• Inconvenient: There's limited opportunity for interaction and feedback between students and teacher within this method of instruction. The lecture style of teaching is also more stifling and doesn't address different types of learning styles.    
  
• not focused enough on comprehension: Teachers may focus more on delivering the material rather than helping to foster greater comprehension, critical thinking and application of the knowledge.      
  

Demonstrator

An event live that teaches students how to sketch can be a good example of demonstration teacher's style. This style of teaching encourages students participation by brainstorming ideas as well as asking questions to stimulate the discussion of their fellow students while they practice what they've learned. In this case, ArtSnacks Mix offers curated art supply kits with live online classes that teach the best ways to use them. This is a wonderful demonstrator approach. This approach is mostly teacher-centered but it also includes students' participation.

Demonstrator's style of teaching is more flexible than lecturer's style, and can go beyond the classroom and incorporating discussion groups, exercises as well as other images (e.g. movies, for instance.).

This type of teaching style is best suited for showing the way students practice what they're learning. Think workshops (e.g. cooking classes, crafting workshops and learning to make magic) and virtual events.

Pros of the demonstration-style of teaching

• Reinforce learning: Demonstrations that are visually appealing stimulate active participation, making the things more memorable.      
  
• Additional feedback: During exercises, teachers are able to provide immediate feedback to their students, making corrections to any errors and demonstrating an appropriate method or strategy.      
  
• Increase interest The demonstrator style of teaching can enrich the learning environment, breaking up lectures or readings with hands-on activities and videos, which help to keep the learning environment fresh and keeps student interest.      
  
• Boost in confidence: By doing demonstrations and completing tasks themselves, students build their confidence. This creates a domino effect, increasing the students' determination to take on more difficult materials and projects.    
  

Cons of the style used by demonstrators to teach

• A challenge for larger groups: The ability to provide individual feedback to students may be extremely challenging with a large group of learners.      
  
• A resource-intensive learning style often requires access to specialized equipment tools, resources, and materials. Teachers with limited budgets may struggle to provide the necessary assets.    
  
• Duration: This type of style of teaching isn't simply time-consuming but takes time for the demonstration itself, which isn't the ideal teaching method for covering a large amount of information.      
  
• Inflexibility: The demonstrator approach to teaching isn't flexible enough for diverse learning styles and preferences. Some students may struggle to learn effectively through visual demonstrations alone and may require a different approach to teaching in order in order to comprehend the subject matter.    
  

Blended

The name implies the teaching style offers a mix of both student-centered and teacher-centered strategies. Many refer to this type of teaching style as hybrid, but there's actually a difference. Blended teaching occurs when an instructor uses a variety of learning mediums to teach students (both in-person and online) For instance it could be through discussions boards, or even an the internet-based project. However, the word hybrid learning relates to both virtual and in-person students participating in a multi-sensory learning environment.

This type of instruction method, an online community is a great place where students can share their thoughts and pose questions. Teachers can boost the engagement of students by shining them in the spotlight (getting them to share their goals, desires and aspirations, and then asking other students to be welcoming), moderating the community in a way that students can feel comfortable to share without fear of getting bullied or abused, and diversifying contents (e.g., full-length articles photographs, polls, and videos).

Blended teaching offers the best of both worlds: students can learn according to their schedules, yet still meet up with fellow students IRL.

This type of teaching style is best suited for teachers who need to be flexible and are looking to engage the students they teach in variety of different ways. Blended education isn't just used in the academic world, it's being used by companies all over the world. Take a look at Walmart that offers its One Global Walmart Academy, which combines live and online education opportunities for its 2.3 millions of employees.

The advantages of blended teaching styles

• Allows for different needs of students: UNESCO reports lower education rate for students who have disabilities, higher dropouts, and lower overall level of literacy. Blended learning may benefit for this type of accessibility.    
  
• Different types of tests: Blended teaching uses a variety of assessments, such as tests, quizzes, essays as well as projects and peer evaluations.      
  
• Flexibility: Since it incorporates both the traditional and contemporary teaching methods, this teaching style lets you be flexible in your course instruction and in learning.      
  
• Diverse types of engagement: Blended teaching promotes different types of engagement -- whether by groupwork, discussion, or an online education community. The students can engage with their material as well as their peers in a variety of ways, keeping things interesting for the students.    
  

The disadvantages of blended learning style

• Slower pace: With the use of synchronous learning, students are required to review material on their own time, meaning that some students progress more slowly than others.      
  
• Requires a lot of effort: This type of teaching style demands a lot of energy of the teacher as well as designing and delivering the information.      
  
• The course will be dependent on the resources available: how the course will be structured (e.g. an virtual community or online component) will depend on the instructor's resources.    
  
• Inequity The internet component can exacerbate existing inequalities and further affect students already disadvantaged as not all students have equal access to technology or access to a reliable internet connection.      
  

Facilitator

The teaching method is dependent on students and teachers play less of an an authoritative role and instead facilitates discussions. Facilitator teaching emphasizes inquiry-based learning -- meaning students are encouraged to think critically, share their wisdom, ask intelligent questions and investigate the unknown. It can be a challenge to solve engaging in constructive debates and having the student teach others what they have learned.

An activity that is more cooperative for teachers who facilitate is where students analyze a real-life scenario. Facilitators facilitate discussion and aid students who are working together conduct extensive research to identify issues and provide solutions. To reinforce learning, students are able to reflect on their experiences and what they learned on their behalf and also what didn't.

While the teacher's present to help facilitate discussions but the burden is on the student to be actively involved to learn in a way that is more than the three styles of instruction we've talked about to date.

When done correctly, this type of teaching style triggers interest and enthusiasm -- the students are determined to find answers to their own questions. Teachers can ignite interest by coming up with a new take on an issue.

This type of teaching style is best suited for learning through hands-on with small groups, which encourages autonomy learning by doing  and the ability to think critically (e.g. games, simulations, playing games, or analyzing cases studies).

Pros of the facilitator method of teaching

• Encourages the development of critical thinking skills: Facilitator teacher style fosters inquiry-based learning, where students are encouraged to develop the analytical abilities (not just take information as a given value, but instead question a source's legitimacy and ask questions to deepen their knowledge).      
  
• Self-reliance: This learning style empowers students to become the primary driver of their own learning journey. They learn to set goals and manage their time efficiently and are accountable for their progress.    
  
• Boosts student engagement: By empowering students to take part in their learning, facilitator teacher style improves student engagement and participation. Students are also more likely to participate into the process of learning because they are assured that their views and contribution are appreciated.    
  
• Practical application: Examining real-life case studies helps students apply the concepts they have learned to actual circumstances. This is not just a way to reinforce the knowledge they have acquired but also helps prepare students for any challenges they could face in their daily lives.    
  

Pros of the teacher's method of teaching

• Needs expert facilitation skills: Effective facilitation is no easy task. It requires enthusiasm for modeling and deep knowledge of the subject and the ability to manage discussions without dominating them. It is not a common occurrence for teachers to have these skills.    
  
• Unequal participation: In group discussions and collaborative activities certain students could dominate the conversation, while others might be too shy or insecure to participate.      
  
• Structure is lacking: In comparison to traditional teaching methods The facilitator's teaching style may lack the structured approach. This can be challenging for those who excel in an environment of structured learning and are unable to cope with the flexibility of inquiry-based learning.    
  
• is not ideal for some topics: Facilitator method of teaching is ideal in real-world situations, but not suitable for theoretical topics.      
  

Delegator

This is the most teacher-centered style of teaching that is often referred to the group style. The teacher's role is to promote social learning as well as observe (like a fly in the air), while the group of students engage in discussions and work collaboratively. The students do the majority of the activities in the delegator style, learning from themselves and from their fellow students.

Students work either independently or with small groups. They will plan then execute and present their results. The students are in charge of their education and have to maintain motivation and focus to see through their projects. Students must take complete ownership of their learning and success. The teacher serves as a consultant, providing guidance and support when needed.

This type of instructional style is ideal for learning through peer-to-peer, such as the group-based course .

The advantages of the delegator method of teaching

• Total ownership of learning: Students take complete responsibility for their outcomes and learning process (this is a fantastic example of what happens in real life -that you are responsible to your own education).      
  
• Enhance their interpersonal skills. Students are involved in discussions and collaborative work and are able to learn how to collaborate with different kinds of people and improves the teamwork and communication skills of students. A study found that 80percent of the learning designers for workplaces said that collaborative learning is crucial.    
  
• Active participation: With this type of instruction, you'll never be refusing to participate and advancing knowledge of the subject.      
  
• Personalized learning Since it is a flexible teaching style it allows to create individualized learning experiences.      
  

The cons of delegator's instructional style

• Unequal work: When it comes to group work certain students could be carrying more work while others might be completely disengaged.      
  
• Risque of misdirection The students could diverge from the intended path or fail to comprehend concepts, since they do not have the direct guidance from their teacher.      
  
• Motivational issues: If students feel lost, confused, or frustrated, they may struggle with their motivation or focus during the project, leading to an unfinished project or even abandoning the class completely.      
  
• It isn't appropriate for all students. If you have students that require more structured assistance or guidance in their learning, the approach of delegators may not be a good choice for them.      
  

What's the best teaching style?

Once you've figured out what the teaching styles are and you're likely to be wondering which the best one to choose. It's simple ... it's a matter of personal preference. It's all about what you're teaching as well as who you're teaching to.

For example, the blended teaching style wouldn't be ideal for children working in the K-12 school system, since children typically require parents' help in the area of online learning. While the demonstration teaching method isn't suitable for large classes of students as it will be difficult for the teacher to give individualised feedback. The lecture teaching style wouldn't work for courses in which the instructor wants to demonstrate an instructional method and let students do the practice in real time.

Are you ready to begin?

Discovering your preferred teaching method is about a blend of understanding the person you are as a teacher and the way your students will learn. If you're in search of an opportunity to create and host online courses, join us! We provide you with an all-in-one platform for courses that lets you market and distribute your courses, as well as include community features, recordings, the ability to host events, digital subscriptions and much more. Our platform offers you the ability to run your communities, hold virtual events and even teach online classes simultaneously from the same place under your own brand.